Trio of Experts Urge Passage of Bipartisan Transportation Bill

The uncertainty surrounding the House bill, and the threat it poses to the entire reauthorization process, has elicited an impassioned response from representatives of “different levels of governance in three states, across three geographic regions, and from both parties” in defense of bipartisanship.

Writing for The Hill, these experts — Mick Cornett, the mayor of Oklahoma City, Eugene Conti, the Secretary of Transportation for North Carolina, and Steve Heminger, Executive Director of the Bay Area Metropolitan Transportation Commission – are urging the House not to come back from recess with the same, bitterly partisan bill as before:

With just a handful of legislative days left before the March 31 expiration, the Senate now seems on the verge of voting on a bipartisan bill. The road has been rougher in the House, but Wed. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) urged his troops to make one last run at crafting their own measure.

We were heartened to hear that House leaders intend to back away from ending the dedicated funding for public transportation begun under President Reagan. But we hope the changes to the earlier draft will go well beyond that.

Word On The Street

“The contractors want the money, the politicians want to be able to claim credit for
projects, and the engineers want to complete every project that was ever
represented by a dotted line on a map -- no matter how long ago it was
conceived nor how the perceived need has changed.”